1115 Waiver

400,000 Virginians will soon benefit, following Wednesday’s decision by state legislature, to expand its Medicaid program.

Virginia joins 32 states and the District of Columbia in expanding its public health insurance program under the Affordable Care Act. The new health care law, which is slated to take effect on January 1, would introduce changes to Virginia’s Medicaid program, which, according to reports, is one of the most “restrictive” in the nation.

For the last six years, the Healthy Indiana Plan (HIP) has delivered quality care, encouraged the use of preventive services, and received measurable results. By incorporating the essence of a high deductible health plan and health savings account (HSA), the Medicaid expansion project became the first in the nation to adopt – and successfully demonstrate – the linkage of personal responsibility with subsided health protection to low-income individuals.

Earlier this month, the head of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), Seema Verma, made an announcement conveying that CMS would approve waiver applications from states that would require Medicaid enrollees to participate in “community engagement” activities, otherwise known as work requirements. This follows a letter co-authored by Verma that encouraged state Medicaid directors to use these waivers to modify their Medicaid programs to empower consumers. To advocates, work requirements are a way to empower Medicaid enrollees by encouraging them to be independent, self-sufficient consumers of healthcare.

Here’s what you should know about the proposed work requirements for Medicaid: